


to celestia

by realoqy



Category: Video Blogging RPF, 原神 | Genshin Impact (Video Game)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Dragonspine (Genshin Impact), Fatui (Genshin Impact), Fatui Harbingers (Genshin Impact), Fights, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Genshin Impact Spoilers, Knights of Favonius (Genshin Impact), Liyue (Genshin Impact), Minor Canonical Character(s), Minor Clay | Dream/GeorgeNotFound (Video Blogging RPF), Mondstadt (Genshin Impact), Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Planning Adventures, Rivalry, Sibling Rivalry, Sleepy Bois Inc as Family, Slice of Life, Swearing, genshin impact au, might be inaccurate, trying to include everyone eventually help
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-14
Updated: 2021-01-28
Packaged: 2021-03-18 16:00:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 16,396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28745835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/realoqy/pseuds/realoqy
Summary: dream is a man that has one dream: to become apart of the knights of favonius. despite having perfected swordsmanship and combat skills along with a rich personality, dream doesn't have a vision. trying to earn one so he can pursue his dream is something that takes up his everyday life.it is a month until the knights hold their tryouts, and he meets an adventuring duo, sapnap and george. after meeting the two and befriending him, dream starts to rethink if he should pursue his one dream or go on to explore the world of teyvat and its beauty with them.
Relationships: Clay | Dream & GeorgeNotFound & Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream & Technoblade (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream & Toby Smith | Tubbo & TommyInnit, Ranboo & Technoblade (Video Blogging RPF)
Comments: 13
Kudos: 49





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> first time posting something on ao3!! still trying to figure stuff out, but i hope you enjoy nonetheless :)  
> twt: realoqy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> it's a typical day for dream in his life, or is it?
> 
> \- the dream team arc

the wind blew and flowed around.

dream unlocked the lock keeping the window shut and was quickly met by the early morning light and it’s warmth. it was nearing the end of spring and he can feel the start of heat that would soon be evident in the following months.

setting his arms on the window seal and cupping his face with his hands, he realized it would be soon until the knights of favonius started holding its annual applications. dream aspired to be apart of the knights ever since he was young, and it was all he ever knew that he wanted to do with his life. exploring the rest of teyvat was something that didn’t interest him because protecting the people of mondstadt was evermore exciting. growing up he heard stories of the many peculiar tales of each honorable member, some being acts of bravery and courageousness while others being silly stories that gave the knights a respectable reputation towards the people of mondstadt. they fought the many monsters in the country’s wilderness and helped the country’s citizens when they were in need. the life of a knight seemed perfect.

however, due to his surprise, he doesn’t have a vision.

all of the “honorable” knights had one, and when a citizen of mondstadt receives a vision, the knights personally ask them to join their ranks. however, if you want to join the knights but don’t have one of them, you’ll have to try out their annual applications. and, you’ll probably be put on their standard patrol teams since you don’t have the power of the elements of teyvat to protect mondstadt’s people.

dream has always been told he had talent in swordsmanship and used the environment to his advantage while in combat. he has also been told that his personality and beliefs all check out for a vision wielder of all elements.

but how come has he not received one yet? he’ll settle for any element, anemo, geo, electro, dendro, hydro, cryo, pyro. anything so that he could be respected and loved by the people of his nation.

maybe i’ll have to settle for being a normal knight member, dream thought to himself.

but he wouldn’t accept that. he’ll never settle for less because at a slim chance, he could possibly have what he wants in life.

and dream was willing to risk it all.

-

getting up from his spot at the window, he put on his green cloak. despite that summer was soon, dream still put on the coat when he went outside. doing these types of antics could possibly lead to him getting his vision. this also applied to the mask with a badly drawn smiley face that he wore when going outside. also deciding to go by the name of “dream” was also part of his antics to get his vision. the mask was made out of a type of transparent fabric that he could see out of, but was opaque enough so that no would could see his face. he would of course question why these antics were of the sort, but dream was desperate.

today he would head to the mondstadt library to return the book he has read for the past few days. dream was on the third volume of the study of visions, focusing on specifically electro visions. people who have electro visions tend to want to maintain and develop the person who they are and how their persona affects them as a whole.

 _am i like that? or am i just overthinking?_ he thought while walking down the main street of mondstadt.

dream did research on every aspect of what could get him in: combat, visions, and information by the higher ups in the knights themselves. that meant most of his time was spent in the library reading all the material he could and practicing with the equipment behind the knights of favonius headquarters. no matter the day, weather, event, he was determined and knew he could do it. but, something always told dream that it would never be enough.

_when will it stop?_

but he believed it would be enough.

_i’m probably just overthinking._

-

walking down the marketplace, dream noticed that the produce of potatoes from the renowned blade potato farm. he would have to pick up groceries when coming back home, or he could always get something from good hunter. perhaps, treat himself to some good old sticky honey roast to prepare for the long month ahead?

going up the stairs which eventually led to the chapel at the very top and the statue of lord barbatos, he found himself at the knights of favonius headquarters at the staircase’s right side. opening the door, dream was met by a boy a couple years younger his age leaning on the main desk, studying a plant. he was dressed in a big green witch’s hat with golden accents that had been accompanied with a dendro vision. he also had a long green coat made of the same material as the hat, but it was as big as him in contrast to dream’s coat. he quickly recognized the boy, they have been acquainted before by a mutual friend at the adventurers guild.

“oh, hey tubbo,” dream greeted him as he continued to walk into the library.

“dream?” tubbo turned to look at the visitor. “oh, nice to see you here! are you here to return your books? i’ve also done some more research on visions since you’ve talked to me about your interest in it since last week!”

tubbo was an apprentice to the head librarian, and so the two saw each other alot despite only have talked to each other once. they spoke to each other for the second time last week when tubbo noticed that dream had interest in the study of visions and how they were gifted by the gods of this world and what qualities they had. dream then eventually opened up to the boy, and he decided to help the other all he could.

“you did?” dream asked, he was surprised that tubbo actually remembered.

“mhm, i’ll grab the notes i took, just stay right here,” the younger smiled. “i’ll mark the book you took home last week as well after that.”

under his mask, dream was smiling while looking down on tubbo. his kindness and hospitality was definitely something that stood out. that bright personality of his is probably how he got his dendro powers.

setting down the third volume of the study of visions on the desk, dream thought about how nice it would be to be able to use elemental sighting and be able to see the markings on the books the librarians put on their books. they used such a system so that “not a single book will go missing for good,” according to the head librarian.

after a minute or two, tubbo came running to the main desk. “sorry for the wait!”

he set down the many pages of notes on the desk to face dream. dream’s hands looked through the pages and noticed the some of the pages seemed to be dried after being wet.

“if you don’t mind me asking, why are some of the pages seem wrinkled?” dream asked while grabbing all the pages and putting them in order after being scattered on the desk.

tubbo chuckled. “me and tommy went out to starfell lake so i could think better while writing notes and tommy had to go pick up some ores for an expedition. lets just say we got into a fight with some hilichurls and some pages went flying into the lake…”

dream laughed, “you two have to be careful out there! who knows, maybe a abyss mage would kidnap you?”

“we were completely fine!” tubbo exclaimed. “and i'm sure me and tommy would figure out a way to get out of there if an abyss mage tried to kidnap us.”

“i don’t know about that, knowing tommy…” dream said jokingly and the two giggled quietly so they wouldn’t disturb the other visitors. “do you mind if i take your notes and study them at the table down there?”

“nope, not at all,” tubbo replied while checking in the book using his vision. “i already recorded all those notes into my journal. it was fun researching something that isn’t plants and machinery.”

“ah ok, i’ll go down there now,” dream uttered quickly walking over to the start of the staircase down to the lower part of the library.

sitting down at the table, dream spreaded the papers and started to read them, trying to understand the faded pencil writing on the pages. he also examined the drawings of the visions made by tubbo. he also saw little notes that seemed to be made by tommy at the sides of pages which are crossed out.

while studying the notes, a loud opening of the door could be heard from the second floor. it was then followed by a bunch of laughing, which was quickly shushed by probably tubbo. confused, dream turned around to try to get a look at who was making such a commotion.

looking over the bookshelves lining the balcony and the fencing along said balcony, he saw two men about his age talking to tubbo. at this distance, dream couldn’t possibly hear what they were talking about, but looking at tubbo’s unreadable expression, he figured that what they were talking about was constantly going off topic due to the duo’s side conversations and laughing.

after a few minutes, it looked that tubbo redirected the duo to the lower part of the library.

_oh god._

the two approached the stairs, one speeding down the stairs while the other sliding down the wooden framing of the staircase.

“hey! don’t do that please!” tubbo shouted as quietly as he could to the two others. dream met his eyes and saw that tubbo was irked a bit by the two.

with that, dream was able to see the duo a bit better. one had dark chocolate hair with matching eyes with what seemed to be white glasses sitting on his head. on his shirt was a piece of white cloth tied around his collar and held a hydro vision. he was wearing overalls that had attached a leather pack around its belt. the other had black hair with black eyes with a white strip of cloth tied around his head which held a pyro vision. he was wearing a short sleeved jacket with a long sleeved shirt under.

“what were you doing sap?! the knights of favonius hq is very old and you can’t just do that!” the one with white glasses on his head quietly yelled to who was “sap.” he seemed to be annoyed.

“c’mon georgie, you knew it was funny!” sap joked towards “georgie.” the two then proceeded to walk down the library hallways.

dream felt someone walk towards him. he looked to his side and saw tubbo and he was wearing a scared look on his face.

“what’s up?” dream whispered.

“i’m afraid those two are going to mess with the books and leave the bookshelves a mess. i don’t want to have to fix that at the end of the day,” tubbo sighed.

“oh.”

-

about ten minutes later, dream saw the duo coming out of the hallways, finally. he got distracted by their constant “quiet” yelling, except, they weren’t quiet. tubbo had to constantly tell them to whisper, but still no matter how much tubbo tried, they didn’t follow his orders.

dream tried to pay attention to the notes, but he found himself getting distracted. sighing, he figured that he should just check out a book and go home.

getting up from his seat and pushing his chair back into the table, dream looked through the shelves and picked up the fourth volume of the study of visions. it took a bit to find the section for research as he was distracted by “georgie” and “sap.” due to his surprise, dream caught them trying to catch glimpses of him when they were in the same hallway. luckily, his mask was able to cover his wandering eyes.

dream went up the stairs and said his goodbye to tubbo. he heard someone also coming out of the library as he left. walking out of the knights of favonius headquarters, and continued to walk through the marketplace of mondstadt.

the crowds of people were filled with mothers and their children picking up groceries from the general goods shop and from good hunter. the aroma of sticky honey roast and other delicacies could be smelled from the restaurant as it was nearing noon. dream remembered considering to get stick honey roast from good hunter again, and he decided to go ahead and spend a bit on himself and enjoy such a gastronomy.

“welcome to good hunter. how can i help you?” the waitress greets.

“can i have one sticky honey roast to go?” dream askes, going into his pocket and searching for his pouch of mora.

“of course, that will be 2,500 mora,” the waitress continues.

dream nodded, and continued to search through his pockets. he didn’t feel anything that fit the description of a mora pouch, but in fact, he didn’t feel anything of solid matter other than the material used to make the pockets.

“i don’t have any mora…” dream muttered to himself in disbelief. how could he forget something of such importance, like mora?

“excuse me, i didn’t hear you clearly. what did you say sir?” the waitress politely questioned.

“we’ll pay!” someone yelled.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> dream meets the adventuring duo, sapnap and george.
> 
> \- the dream team arc

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i have some chapters of this, gonna be posting daily to see how this goes  
> enjoy!

“we’ll pay!” someone yelled.

dream turned around and saw the duo from the library waving. he felt his cheeks flush from embarrassment, but quickly nodded in response. they then came up to the counter and the one with glasses resting on top of his head slid over to the waitress 2,500 mora. dream just stood there and watched as the transaction was made, and then he opened his mouth to say something.

“yknow, you really don’t have to--”

he was then cut off by the man who paid, who he believed to be “georgie.” “hey, don’t worry about it! we wanted to speak to you anyways, so why not do it over a meal?”

“oh wait, can i add to the order?” the one with the white strip of cloth tied around his head asked, who was called “sap” from earlier. the waitress nodded. “let’s add, two more orders of sticky honey roast, shall we?”

“alright, that will be an additional 5,000 mora for two orders of sticky honey roast,” the waitress smiled.

they paid accordingly, and then sat together at the nearby table in the dining area. sitting down, they then basked in silence. of course it was awkward, dream doesn’t know anything about the duo other than his eavesdropping from earlier.

after a few seconds of silence, dream spoke up. “you said you wanted to speak to me?”

“oh yeah! that’s what we were supposed to do,” one said, looking at the other. “we should start with introductions, i’m sapnap, an adventurer for the adventurers’ guild.”

“and i am george, also an adventurer for the guild,” george smiled. “we’re an adventuring duo.”

dream nodded, and then introduced himself. “i’m dream. nothing really special to me other than that.”

“you’re not even affiliated with the knights of favonius? hell, even the blade potato farm?” sapnap stood up from his seat and stared down into the dot eyes of dream’s mask.

dream shook his head.

  
“even in the slightest?” george continued.

“i mean, i’ve talked to tommy a few times but that's the closest i will ever get to talking to an heir of the farm. or in this case, be affiliated with them,” dream stated.

“oh, that little gremlin child,” sapnap sit back down and looked at his adventuring partner.

george sighed and continued their questions. “do you have a vision?”

dream shook his head again.

“what?!” the duo said in unison.

“everything about the way you dress and that mask of yours screams that you are special all over,” sapnap said.

“yeah about my mask,” dream laughed, becoming more comfortable with the duo. “the reason why i even wear it is to try to trigger something to get a vision.”

“gentlemen, your food,” a waitress said, holding three plates of sticky honey roast. it looked like she was there for awhile.

“oh, thank you! we are so sorry for not… uh, noticing you,” george responded quickly, looking towards her and taking the plates of food and setting them on the table.

“hah, that’s some weird wording,” sapnap commented on george’s response as the waitress walked away.

“don’t make things weird, sap,” george said, taking his fork to start jabbing at his sticky honey roast. “dream is right here and you’re making some bad first impressions. not cool.”

“how do you know that? ask dream himself,” sapnap snickered, gesturing to the man himself to speak.

“you guys aren’t giving me bad first impressions at all honestly,” dream then said. “the opposite, actually.”

“exactly george! we are amazing,” sapnap laughed while chewing on his food.

“i can hear your ego growing,” george joked in response. “and might i add, don’t talk while eating!”

“yeah, that’s disgusting,” dream added on.

“hmph, whatever!”

the three then laughed and continued to finish their food while getting to know more about each other.

-

“man, i’m full,” sapnap said while setting his utensils unto the plate.

“mondstadt cuisine, damn, it’s filling,” george agreed. “with that being said, i think we should continue talking dream, you are an interesting one, alright.”

oh yeah, i completely forgot they probably had much more serious intentions when they decided to talk to me. dream thought to himself.

“yeah, we could go ahead and walk around the city and find a place to talk,” dream said standing up from his chair. “i should probably repay you while we’re at it.”

“dream, no,” george said in response. “our treat, as we are all now friends, right?”

sapnap nodded while standing up as well, pushing in his chair.

“we’ll see,” dream muttered, not sure if they could hear him from under his mask.

but oh well, they did.

-

“any idea where we should go?” sapnap asked as they walked down mondstadt’s marketplace. it was nearing the end of rush hour, so the stands had little to no groceries left.

“i mean, we could go to the statue of lord barbatos near the chapel, or go out to the statue of the seven out in windrise and camp out there if you’re into that,” dream suggested.

“you can camp in the middle of windrise?” george asked. “aren’t there hilichurl camps out there? we also heard at the guild that the abyss order is a problem here in mondstadt.”

“i mean, didn’t you two say that you have experience in combat?” dream continued with his suggestion. “and i think i know a thing or two about wielding a sword.”

“sounds fun, a night out in the wilderness? i mean, we’ve done it before, but waking up to be under the mondstadt sun must be nice, it’s beautiful here,” sapnap commented. “and imagine all the bonding we can do.”

“bonding?” dream asked.

“aha, yeah we wanted to ask you if you wanted to adventure with us! i guess we’ll just explain more later, i’m gonna go pick up our stuff now, i’ll meet you guys outside the gate,” the other responded, walking up to the guild.

dream frowned and became lost in his thoughts. how am i going to break it to them that i want to be a knight? why would they even consider adding me to their team when i don’t have a vision? isn’t it a requirement to adventure professionally for the guild?

“well, we should prepare then,” george said. “i’ll try to find a good sword for you dream. are you sure you don’t have anything nicer than a high quality sword from the blacksmith?”

dream shook his head. he thought about his worn out dull blade that he found laying around at the knights of favonius training grounds behind their headquarters.

“alright, we’ll see if we can scramble enough materials, i’m pretty sure i have a sword prototype in my bag,” george smiled. “it was one of our first treasures when me and sap started to adventure together. i wield a bow and he wields a claymore, so we never put it to any good use.”

“george, are you sure you want to use it? prototypes are really rare from what i’ve heard,” dream asked.

“i am 100% sure dream.” he responded, with no hesitation whatsoever.

-

for the next 30 minutes, dream and george shopped around the marketplace, gathering some standard groceries and ingredients to cook dinner out in the wilderness. again, dream tried to pay for some of the groceries, but george immediately declined the idea.

after running their errands, they had enough to make some chicken mushroom skewers (george said that sapnap has mastered the recipe), some mondstadt grilled fish, and three slices of fisherman’s toast for the following morning. meeting up with sapnap, george then remembered to commision a sword at the local blacksmith, which will be their last errand to do in mondstadt before heading out to windrise.

“so, the blacksmith here is able to make either the iron sting or prototype rancour,” sapnap told the others after talking to the blacksmith for the past minute or two.

“what’s the difference?” george questioned. “it’s just a sword.”

“the main difference is probably the weight and sharpness of the sword, so as the structure of its grip,” dream answered. “i don’t think you would know anything about that though george, with bows you just have to learn how to position yourself and that’s about it.”

“i spent years learning how to wield the damn thing and i’m still trash, give me a break,” george joked.

“i don’t think i will,” dream responded with a light chuckle. “which one do you think sounds cooler sapnap?”

“why are you asking me?” he laughed.

“just answer the question,” dream said.

“in that case, the iron sting,” sapnap finally answered. “it has this clean blue finish, it looks pretty cool.”

“then get the prototype rancour,” dream concluded.

“why even ask him in the first place then?” george said confusingly as sapnap walked back to the blacksmith.

“i don’t know,” dream chuckled under his mask. “i’m stupid like that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ty for reading, ily :) /p
> 
> (formatting is still weird wtf someone help how do u do this)


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> dream and his newfound friends head out to windrise.
> 
> \- the dream team arc

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> updated, enjoy!

“well,” george said, shading himself from the sunlight with his hand. “we’re here.”

they were standing in front of the statue of seven in windrise. wind blew through the leaves of the tree behind it and the windwheel asters surrounding the scenery span and span. the anemo crystalflys could also be seen but at a faint second before they floated into the air as it was still daytime. it felt refreshing and soothing, almost as if it was cleaning your mind and body.

“so where should we like,” sapnap started looking towards dream. “set up camp?”

“we can camp along the falcon coast or towards the path leading to the thousand winds temple,” dream answered, pointing accordingly to where he was suggesting.

“falcon coast,” george said.

“thousand winds temple,” sapnap said.

they said it in sync almost immediately after dream finished his sentence.

“oh, um,” dream continued after the duo’s responses. “that doesn’t really help with making a decision, yknow.”

“then how should we come to a decision then dream?” george asked.

“oh dream, i know you would love to camp under the trees,” sapnap said in a sing-song tone.

“but wouldn’t it be nicer to wake up to the sound of the waves?” george retaliated.

the duo then began to bicker with each other while dream stood watching.

_how am i supposed to mediate?_

“oh i know! how about we decide by seeing who can climb up to the highest branch of the tree first and back down first?” george suggested to sapnap during the bickering.

“bet,” sapnap laughed. “dream, could you time me? just so i can rub it in georgie’s face when i win.”

“i hate you!” the other yelled as he walked towards the tree’s trunk.

“how am i supposed to yknow, time you?” dream asked.

“here’s my pocket watch,” sapnap pulled out a small device from his pocket and handed it to dream. “we’ll probably yell go when we start, so watchout for that.”

“oh okay,” dream said taking the pocket watch and examining its features.

“thank you man, you’re a real one!” sapnap exclaimed as he went to the tree’s trunk next to george.

dream smiled despite it being concealed by his mask. looking down on the pocket watch again, it looked rather old, as if it was a gift given to a son by his father. the gold parts of it were fading, but it was definitely still usable.

looking up, dream saw the duo laughing and getting positioned to race. their friendship was lighthearted and spirited by the way they looked at each other. it was as if they were brothers. family.

and it seemed he was slowly becoming part of this family every second despite only meeting each other just that day.

and it feels so right.

-

“GO!” george and sapnap yelled in unison, and off they climbed.

dream started to time sapnap with the stopwatch, carefully watching as he climbed up the tree. sometimes he would look at george as well just to make sure he didn’t run into anything dangerous as well such as a acorn falling out of the tree or some sort.

30 seconds later, sapnap had finally reached the highest branch on the tree.

“you’re probably so out of breath right now,” george yelled while climbing, panting between every few words, ever so close to the branch.

“but i bet you don’t have this,” sapnap shouted back, unleashing a standard pair of black wings from his back.  
“wait, that’s not fair!” george exclaimed, finally making it to the branch as sapnap got ready for take off with his glider.

dream watched as sapnap struggled balancing himself with the winds blowing through the leaves of the trees. it was clear he has never used a wing glider before as his face expression showed his struggle. his eyes widened ever so often out of confusion and his pupils told of fear.

dream couldn’t help but laugh as sapnap finally landed, stopping the pocket watch as his feet hit the ground. he took off the glider and looked up towards george who showed immediate disgust in his face expression.

“you got a wind glider without telling me? you’re really the worst snapmap!” he yelled. “you know how much i wanted to try them out ever since we started traveling towards mondstadt!”

“oh, don’t worry gogy, i have another one in our bags just for you,” sapnap laughed.

“whatever,” george rolled his eyes as he started to climb down the tree again. “i’ll be down there in just a second.”

“so,” sapnap started looking towards dream. “what’s my time?”

“a little more than 50 seconds,” dream said, pointing the pocket watch towards the other.

“oh cool,” he replied, taking the pocket watch from dream and putting it in his pocket. “thank you, again.”

“no problem,” dream replied.

“so,” george said, running down towards the two. “we should start going, the sun is setting.”

the three look towards the west. the sky was painted blue, pink, and orange with the bright sun shining and blinding their eyes. dimly lit was the silhouette of mondstadt, the statue of lord barbatos, the cathedral, and the windmills being able to be made out with the sky as its backdrop.

“must be nice to live in mondstadt, right dream?” sapnap asked, climbing a rock to get a better view of the sunset.

“it never ceases to amaze me honestly,” he replied. “mondstadt is my home, through and through.”

silence then filled the air, only the sound of leaves rustling through the wind could be heard. the light heat of the sun covering their faces.

“but does it ever get boring?” george then asked. “i can never see myself staying in one country all my life, this world is too beautiful not to be explored.”

dream opened his mouth to say something, but then paused in that very moment. he felt the world stop, sound tuning out, and the light breeze of the wind not being able to continue throughout teyvat.

“this world is too beautiful not to be explored,” dream repeated under his breath.

_is it really?_

-

with a flick of his pyro vision, sapnap started their campfire. he then hanged over a ceramic pot filled with cut and diced fowl and mushrooms to sizzle on the fire. dream stared at the little cinders popping out.

he then took in the environment. the sky started to darken into a light shade of navy blue into periwinkle and you could see faint stars and the moon itself. the wind blew and the sound of grass being moved along by it could be heard along with the cinders of the fire. up above, celestia could also be seen.

the group had set up camp. sapnap and george always bring a tent around with them along with a leveled platform, oil lanterns, and wood supports for it. it could typically fit both of them, but it was decided that dream would sleep under the tent as it was only hospitable. so, that then decided that sapnap and george would sleep around the campfire.

but does it ever get boring? george’s words echoed in dream’s mind. i can never see myself staying in one country all my life, this world is too beautiful not to be explored.

he felt the world stop again. what if i adventured through teyvat with them? put behind my dreams of becoming a knight to be able to see the beauty of this world? maybe then i will truly learn what it means to live?

“when do you think the chicken mushroom skewers will be finished?” george then asked, cutting through dream’s train of thoughts. he was making fruit juice with sunsettias, apples, and berries along with purified water with his vision.

“between five or 10 minutes,” sapnap replied using a stick to flip around the ingredients and making sure they are all cooked.

“shouldn’t it take less than that?” dream then asked.

“trust me dream, i know how to make these things perfectly and it takes time my friend,” he replied, not even looking at dream directly.

“oh george told me all about it,” dream chuckled. “it’s just when i make chicken mushroom skewers i do it pretty quickly.”

some minutes passed by and the chicken mushroom skewers were ready. its aroma filled the air as sapnap picked the fowl and mushrooms in a pattern with the wooden skewers. they then seasoned the fish for the mondstadt grilled fish and put it in the bowl after a quick wash by george. the fruit juice was also ready, and the three started to enjoy their meal.

“cheers!” they said in unison, putting their cups together over the campfire while sitting on the floor.

“so,” sapnap started. “dream, do you think you would ever consider adventuring with us? i know that question is a bit weird since we only met today, but you seem to be a cool person, yknow.”

“even if i don’t have a vision?” dream asked without thinking, almost choking on his last word when he realized what he was saying.

“of course not,” george responded. “is that something you worry about?”

dream swallowed his fruit juice and thought. he remembered the notes from tubbo, still stuffed into his pocket along with the third volume of the study of visions. he thought all about the years dreaming becoming a knight and being honored and respected by the people of mondstadt wielding the power of a element to gain said respect. but, leaving mondstadt and adventuring the rest of teyvat would mean he wouldn’t have to worry about a vision anymore and his future.

“you see,” dream sighed. “i’ve always wanted to become a knight when i was younger and having a vision helps with that. having a vision helps with life in general.”

“oh i see,” sapnap smiled towards the other. “if that’s what you want to do, then go for it. sorry for even bringing it up and all yknow.”

“but now after today,” dream continued. “i don’t even know. i don’t know what i should do, i’m so confused. part of me wants to go around teyvat with you guys, the other is staying true to my younger self.”

“if you need time to think, we’ll wait,” george said. “we’re not really in a hurry to be honest, it’s nice here in mondstadt.”

“i’ll think about it then.”

-

dream pulled on the covers and shifted to the other side of the tent. he was still wearing his mask, but he didn’t care. hell, it was the least of his concerns right now. it was hours ever since the conversation about joining sapnap and george in their adventures and they talked about other things since then, but it was still on his mind. by now, the other two were already asleep.

from this side, dream could see the sky. the moon and stars lit up what little he could see other than the tree and the statue of the seven. up there was still celestia moving alongside with teyvat.

_i wonder what it’s like up in celestia._

dream then closed his eyes again, trying to fall asleep. his muscles loosened up and his body became relaxed. he laid there peacefully, taking in the sounds, feelings, and smell of windrise. it was refreshing and soothing, just like at the tree.

at least it was until a cry of a hilichurl could be heard.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ty for reading :)
> 
> twt: realoqy


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> dream, sapnap, george investigate the place of the hilichurl's cry.
> 
> \- the dream team arc

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> there are so many hits aaa, i hope you enjoy the new chapter!

“what the fuck was that?” sapnap jolted out of his cushioning, which woke up george and the half that was asleep in dream as well.

“it sounded like it came from up the path?” george responded as another loud sound filled their ears. it sounded like a mitachurl’s horn. “oh god, do we really have to fight a hilichurl camp in the middle of night?”

“let’s just go check out what’s going on,” sapnap said with a tired tone, standing up to grab the claymore that was lying on one of the supports of the tent. “and we’ll get involved if we should.”

“alright,” george replied with a yawn. “dream, you should come if worse comes to worse.”

“are you sure?” dream asked, getting up and grabbed the prototype rancour lying on the floor next to him. he stared at the black-brownish accents along with the beige inner part of the sword, and sighed. are they really going to trust me with helping them?

“you said you know a thing or two about wielding a sword, right?” george asked.

dream nodded.

“so yes.”

-

the three crept up the side of the trail to make sure the hilichurls lining the paths didn’t stop them from getting to the core of the sounds. there could be a person’s life in ganger, and they had no time to lose.

but of course, there were small slimes and whopperflowers getting in their way. sapnap could quickly take care of this with a slash of his claymore and a bit of fire as well, but after cleaning up a whopperflower some hilichurl berserkers came down running towards the group, waving their torches in the air to try to whack them.

with a few slashes of his sword, dream took out one of the hilichurls and sapnap took our the others. george was firing water infused arrows towards the hilichurls standing on the tower, hiding under the trees and bushes so that the electro hilichurls didn't shoot him and the others with lightning.

then, a water droplet fell on dream’s head. but then it became to pour in the matter of seconds. looking up, there was still the tree the was covering the three, but now there is a dark grey cloud right above it.

“what the hell,” he muttered to himself.

“there’s a hydro samachurl,” sapnap commented. “we should kill it as soon as possible or else if we do any damage to any of the other enemies here they will be healed.”

“well then,” george sighed. “should we go in?”

“seems like the only option.”

“in that case, dream, we’re ready when you are.”

but he already went in the midst of the battle.

-

dream swinged his sword, slashing on the hilichurl guard’s wooden shield. looking around, he noticed a pyro barrel resting on a metal holder. sprinting towards it with hilichurls following him, he slashed it once with his sword, exploding it. clouds of ash filled his vision as it simmed through into the space between his face and mask, causing him to cough. but when his vision cleared up, dream found himself flying straight into a metal cauldron filled with water.

“i have the luck of a god,” he panted while slashing his sword with the hydro slime accompanying him in the cauldron.

looking back at where the pyro barrel was resting, he found the remains of some hilichurls with some damaged masks in the pile. picking them up and storing them into his pocket, dream ran towards a tower with a hilichurl shooter. he climbed up the ladder and pierced the hilichurl in the back with his sword, with it dropping some arrowheads.

grabbing the arrowheads, dream looked around the hilichurl camp. there were a few hilichurl grenadiers taking pyro slimes and trying to throw them at him. thinking fast while spinning his sword once, dream jumped from the tower to a hut. running over the hilichurl hut, he jumped off of it performing a plunge attack to damage the hilichurl grenadiers.

  
picking up the damaged masks and stuffing them into his pocket with the ones he picked up, dream looked around again, then remembering george and sapnap. he realized that this part of the hilichurl camp detoured from the main part.

_shit, they’re probably worrying about me. god dammit, why am i such an idiot!?_

dream choked on the air filled with ash as he ran through the pathways, trying to find his friends. stopping to take a breath, he took a deep breath and ripped off his mask so he could breathe easier. putting the mask in the pocket not filled with the damaged masks and firm arrowheads, dream ran as fast as he could. and oh, he ran.

a blow from a heavy horn blared again. it was right in the direction of where he was going, which meant that they were there.

sprinting to the top, dream saw that the camp had seemingly doubled. the blow from the horn earlier probably meant that this camp needed backup and they arrived before he did. in the middle of the camp was sapnap and george, facing off the enemies back to back, but it seemed that this had become too much for only the two of them to handle.

_oh no._

george looked to the entrance of the camp, fear in his eyes. “dream! is that you?!”

and dream felt the world stop once again. all the pressure on him faded away and sound drowned out from that very moment. looking around, he analyzed the situation. there hilichurl shooters firing up their arrows, hilichurl grenadiers piling up their pyro slimes to throw at the two, dendro samachurls summoning thorny bushes, and mitachurls firing up their axes.

all of those monsters were there to hurt his friends and possibly hurt their dreams to explore the world.

the wind blew and flowed around.

and right then and there, he harnessed them.

-

everything unpaused, and dream went into the havoc.

“move out of the way!” he yelled, setting down a decoy with a smiling face (similar to that of his mask) pulling in the smaller enemies with the wind coming from it.

sapnap and george backed away from the decoy and followed up with him. george tipped his arrows with hydro so that the anemo decoy can swirl with hydro. sapnap set down a spawn of fire, quickly exploding at his will, causing vaporize. dream charged attacked at the decoy, the winds of it causing his sword to be infused with anemo. and then again, rain started to pour. it was again, a samachurl healing the hilichurls that were caught in the decoy’s air gust.

looking around, dream saw the faint illumination of the samachurl controlling the rain, and sprinted to it to slash at it with strikes of anemo. after meeting its demise, the samachurl dropped some divining scrolls and he happily took them to add to his pockets’ collection.

coming up behind dream however bashed its shield into his back, knocking dream up. looking down he saw george and sapnap fighting with the other enemies in the camp, using their weapons. after seeing the weapons and thinking of them, dream plunged into the wooden shield mitachurls.

sapnap came up and put down a spawn of fire and exploded it to cause the mitachurl’s shield to start burning and started to run back to the other enemies. “thank me later!”

“will do!” dream yelled back, spawning his decoy and attacking it for his sword to be infused with anemo again to swirl the fire on the shield so it can be broken.

after a few seconds of slashing at the shield, it finally burned to a crisp. continuing to attack it, george shot a hydro aimed shot at the mitachurl so that dream can heal off of it.

the clanging of weapons and the sounds of elements making reactions filled the soundwave along with battle grunts. each enemy was taken one by one, and by the time the sun started to rise, the coast was clear.

-

for the next hour, they cooked up some fisherman’s toast to enjoy for breakfast as they packed up camp.

dream picked up the third volume of the study of visions resting on the support for the tent, already unmade. in the book were the notes given to him by tubbo, and he thought about his dream that he has been working towards all his life.

gripping unto the anemo vision now tied to the collar of his dress shirt, dream sighed. he remembered the wind flowing around him, finally manifesting into a crystal which only he can control. the breeze has been something so dear to him in trying to figure out how to earn a vision to become a knight. it appeared in his morning walks to the library, in his training, and it was there that very morning. the wind has always watched over him, almost like it was guiding him towards his goal.

so why did it appear when he saw his new friends in danger? friends he met on that same day? friends who have introduced him to the idea of abandoning his dream and going with them to adventure every corner of teyvat?

it doesn’t make sense.

taking his mask from his pocket, dream put it on, and sighed.

what was he going to do?

to ask them to join them would be foolish. he put them in danger, put their lives at risk. but seeing their fear and the urge to want to protect them and join them and stay by their side was symbolized by the wind. by his vision.

dream then realized.

_it all leads back to them._

-

“so, just to be clear,” the receptionist at the adventurer’s guild said, writing down information onto the paper. “an unusual amount of backup arrived at a specific hilichurl camp showed up on the pathway between windrise and the thousand winds temple?”

george nodded.

“and you three cleared out the whole camp?” she asked.  
george nodded again.

“so that’s the reason why some camps were reported empty for today’s commissions,” the receptionist murmured. “do you have any idea of this camp being related to the abyss order? just for the knights of favonius’ information.”

“no idea,” george answered.

“alright,” she wrote on the papers. “that must’ve been very hard, especially in the middle of the night. your work will be commended and recognized, for sure.”

“really was,” sapnap yawned.

“well, to be commended officially, you need to be registered at the guild,” the receptionist continued. “and i believe our masked friend over there isn’t. what’s your name again? i’m afraid i didn’t catch it.”

“the name’s dream.”

“i’ve seen you around,” she said. “did you get your vision during the fight?”

dream nodded.

“i see, quite interesting,” the receptionist smiled. “would you like to sign up for the guild?”

he stood and thought.

“sure, why not.”

-

“well,” george said as the three sat next to each other in the center fountain. “that’s definitely a story i will tell for the rest of my life.”

“so dream,” sapnap spoke with a tired tone. “since you have a vision now, aren’t the knights going to ask you to join them personally?”

“yeah,” dream replied. he was deep in his thoughts.

“didn’t you say that was your dream since you were a child?” he continued. “you can finally pursue it without having to worry!”

“sounds exciting,” george smiled, looking towards the sky. “your life is going to change before you know it.”

“but, i don’t think the knights is the reason why i earned my vision,” dream whispered, hoping they wouldn’t hear. but, to no avail, they did.

“why do you think you did?” george asked.

“i think it’s because i realized what i actually want to do in life,” dream said.

“and that is?” sapnap questioned.

“it’s to adventure with you guys,” dream admitted. “this world is really just too beautiful to explore, and to do it with you two sounds perfect to me.”

they both looked at him, gesturing for him to continue.

“but,” dream said. “i seperated from you two during the fight. i saw the fear in your eyes when you two were back to back. i put you guys in danger.”

after a bit of silence, they both laughed.

“dream, don’t worry about it!” sapnap laughed. “we’ve talked about this before when we first started adventuring together, the thrill of the fight can carry us away from the people we have to stick to.”

“as time goes by, we’ll just intuitively stick together,” george added on. “don’t be too hard on yourself about something like that.”

dream felt his eyes water a bit under his mask. “so… does that mean i can adventure with you guys?”

“of course,” they said in unison.

and so, the dream team finally formed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ty for reading ;)


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the dream team settles down and plan their next move.
> 
> \- transition chapter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> woo new chapter!! enjoy :)

“it’s not much, but it’s what i call home,” dream said as the trio entered his small apartment tucked away on the second floor of a building in mondstadt. “i have a guest room over there. there’s only one bed in there, so you guys can fight over who gets to sleep there and who gets to sleep on the sofa.”

“alright, how are we going to decide this?” sapnap asked, plopping down unto the single person sofa. a loveseat sofa was sat next to the wall and the two sofas both surrounded a small coffee table. 

“please don’t climb all over the place, i will immediately send you guys to the inn,” dream laughed half heartedly, sitting on the loveseat.

“i think we should just do it with a standard flip of a coin,” george suggested, taking his mora pouch out from his pocket and took one mora out. “i call heads.”

“ok, whatever,” sapnap responded. 

dream then saw sapnap start to hyperfixate on the books set on the table as george flipped the coin. he remembered one of the books was the knights of favonius handbook and the other was photobook of pictures from when he was younger. the binding on the photobook was green with evergreen embroidering. dream took note of sapnap’s interest in it.

“it’s tails,” george concluded, taking sapnap out of his fixation on the books.

“oh c’mon,” sapnap sighed. “but really, we should all take a nap.”

“yeah, i’m literally going to pass out right here right now,” dream said, getting out of his seat. “i’ll talk to you guys later.”

george nodded, opening the door on the opposite side. sapnap, however, was still staring at the books. dream smiled under his mask, went to his room, and passed out the moment he laid down on his bed.

-

waking up, dream found himself lying on the bed, his face buried into his pillow. getting up, his mask was still on, which made his face slightly irritated. dream took it off, and realized that his body however was aching from the terrible positioning when he slept.

getting up, dream looked out his window and saw the sun was setting, just like it was yesterday at the statue of seven in windrise. smiling at the thought, he massaged his back and opened the door to the main room.

sapnap was laying down on the loveseat flipping through the pages of the green photobook that was once on the coffee table.

“sap, you didn’t sleep?” dream asked. “how long has it been?”

“...huh?” the other replied confusingly. “um… i didn’t.”

“what have you been doing then?” dream questioned, sitting on the single person sofa to inspect sapnap even more. he then realized he was looking through the photobook. “wait, why are you looking through that?!”

“i got curious,” sapnap laughed with a tired tone. “i should probably put it away.”

“i saw you eyeing it when george flipped the coin earlier,” dream replied. “but at least have some respect and ask. but whatever, it’s done now.”

some silence filled the air.

“you were really cute when you were a kid,” sapnap said to break it. “you don’t have many photos with your family though.”

“yeah,” dream sighed, not adding much to the conversation. “should i take that as a compliment?”

“i have no idea,” the other replied, continuing to flip through the pages. “that reminds me, i should really write a letter to my family back in fontaine. they’ll be excited to hear that i met someone cool out here in mondstadt.”

“you’re from fontaine?” dream asked.

“yeah, but i have family in other nations as well,” sapnap answered. “george is from fontaine as well. we met each other when we were both on an expedition in the same area. we haven’t stopped talking since then.”

“sounds cool,” dream said. “i have some friends as well, but we’re not like yknow, inseparable. when we see each other out and about, we talk, and go on our ways.”

“i see,” sapnap responded, finally closing the book. “what are some of them like?”

“remember the boy with the long green coat in the library?” dream brought up. sapnap nodded. “he’s tubbo, we met through tommy during a community event at the guild. i heard one of the captains from the knights was going to be there, so i went. didn’t meet him though.”

“ah, tommy,” the other said, followed with a laugh. “he was the kid that gave us a tour of the guild. well… he’s a kid.”

“yeah,” dream laughed. “i met him when he just decided to go up to me one day and asked, ‘what’s up with that mask of yours, big man?’”

“how is he even an heir to the blade potato farm is my question,” sapnap added. “which captain was supposed to be there?”

“believe it was wilbur, recreation captain of the knights of favonius,” dream answered. “that man is the ideal type, rich, tall, good looking, nice singing voice, i can go on.”

“isn’t he also a heir to the farm as well?” the other asked.

“yeah, i asked tommy about how it feels to be an heir to the farm and his relationship with his brothers, but he avoided the question,” dream said. “it’s almost if he’s ashamed of it.”

“that’s weird,” sapnap commented. “brothers… there’s another one?”

“yeah, his name is… techno?” dream tried to recall. “weird name, sounds futuristic. no one knows anything about him other than he’s an heir, has a cryo vision, wields a claymore, and is a strong fighter.”

“yeah, that name’s a bit weird,” sapnap replied. “but who are we to say it’s weird? what’s your real name dream?”

“oh, uh,” he hesitated. “it’s clay. don’t call me that though, it’s a bit weird.”

“mine’s nick,” sapnap said. “and don’t worry about it, it’s a bit weird for people other than family calling me that.”

“yeah.”

-

the sun has finally set when george comes out of the guest room.

“hi guys,” he smiled. “i hope you all had a good rest.”

dream looked towards george, made eye contact, and gestured to sapnap, who has dozed off on the sofa. he was sound asleep.

“ohh,” george laughed quietly. “what was he doing?”

“looking through a photobook of pictures when i was younger,” dream whispered. “invasion of privacy, but whatever.”

“ah, classic sapnap,” the other replied, then looking towards the somewhat walled off kitchenette. “do you have anything to eat?”

“here, let’s go over there and talk,” dream said, getting up from the single person sofa and headed over to the kitchenette, and george followed.

the kitchenette had a small stove that would have to be heated up with firewood. it also had a counter attached to the walls with some pots holding some fruits and shelves holding plates, bowls, and other utensils. there was also a sink next to the stove.

“it’s cozy in here,” george commented, taking an apple from one of the bowls and going to the sink to rinse it with water. “do you have a cutting board? and a knife?”

dream nodded. “cutting board’s on the shelf, knife’s hanging on the wall with the rest of my cooking utensils.”

“alright,” george replied. 

he took off his gloves, set them on the counter, and rinsed the apple. going to the shelf and taking the cupboard and taking the knife from the hanging cooking utensil holder. setting the cutting board on the counter and setting the apple on the board, he cut it in half, into fourths, and then into eights.

“would you like some?” george asked, handing a slice of the apple towards dream.

“oh, sure,” he said, taking the slice and putting it into his mouth. they sat eating in silence, the crunches of apples being eaten could be heard.

“it’s sweet and crispy,” george commented after eating his slice. “are mondstadt apples in season right now?”

“i have no idea, i don’t research stuff like that,” dream laughed. “sapnap was telling me about how you guys met in fontaine. how would you describe fontaine apples?”

“weird question,” george said, but continued to answer his question. “very tart, sweet and sour, somewhat squishy.”

“sounds interesting,” dream said. “just curious.”

“yeah, didn’t you mention when we were coming over here that you haven’t been outside of mondstadt ever?” george recalled.

“i did,” he replied. “farthest i’ve gone is towards the potato farm and winery.”

“i heard about how famous mondstadt was for their potatoes and wine,” george took another slice. “but i’d say dragonspine is definitely what would attract people to come here. that’s actually why i even convinced sapnap to head to mondstadt, and we met you.”

“oh, dragonspine,” dream repeated as george put the slice he took into his mouth. “i’ve never been there to even experience its cold. but, i’ve seen pictures and heard from the gremlin child.”

“gremlin child?” george asked, and then realized. “oh. tommy.”

the both then ate their second slice.

“well you see,” george then started to explain after he finished his slice. “we went to the library to find more about stuff we can do in dragonspine. we were planning to headout today, but we met you and that just wasn’t positive. i haven’t even told you about our plans.”

dream nodded.

“so, i was thinking maybe we could go to dragonspine? it must be a bit hard to start adjusting to adventuring, so we can start from there,” george continued. “somewhere close to home, but still going to bring us thrill.”

“sounds good to me,” he approved. “sounds really exciting actually.”

george smiled. “i’m glad to hear that.”

“what’s going on?” someone asked. it was sapnap. “oh wait, am i intruding something? i’ll leave now!”

the two turned around, and george screamed, “what? no! you’re disgusting sap!”

dream stood there confused.

“yeah right,” he joked and approached the two and george scoffed. “i’m starving. can we cook anything?”

“i can cook some sweet madame,” dream suggested. “might take a bit because well, it’s sweet madame after all.”

“that sounds good,” sapnap said. george hummed in agreement.

“ok, i’ll get to work.”

and so, the three enjoyed their dinner so that they will be ready for the day to come tomorrow. for dragonspine was their next destination.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yes i searched up how to describe an apple for this


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the dream team arrive at dragonspine and meet someone new.
> 
> \- the blade and his brothers arc

“so,” george said excitedly as they entered the front camp of dragonspine. “we’re here! we can go ahead and ask the people here about things we should be aware of before heading up, or go straight to the entrance of the mountain.”

the front camp of dragonspine was rather cozy. there was a blacksmith examining some low quality swords and polearms, a researcher spreading out some books on a table, an adventurer off to sleep in some cushioning under the tent, and a chef cooking away at a nearby stove.

it was a few hours before noon. the trio have been getting ready to come up here since the early morning, from packing up things they would need to camp out in the cold (via the guild’s supplies) to getting groceries from the marketplace. they also got dream a wing glider during their errands. for the past hour, they walked from mondstadt city to the entrance of dadaupa gorge up the hill to the camp.

“i think we’re going to be okay to be honest,” sapnap replied.

“hey! are you three adventurers?” the researcher yelled towards the trio. they all nodded. “be careful, there’s been an influx of treasure hoarders and fatui up the mountain!”

“influx of treasure hoarders and fatui…” dream repeated to himself as he followed sapnap and george along the pathway. “good to know.”

-

the trio walked around the pathway. there were planks of wood engraved in the dirt with wooden fencing surrounding it as well. continuing down the pathway was finally the stone bridge that led to dragonspine, however, it was broken.

george, who was leading the group, almost tripped when he was near the end of the bridge. “i think we just have to glide to the middle part and then swim over, unless you’re skilled enough to glide to the side of the bridge...”

but by the time george finished, sapnap was in the water.  
“you’re going to get cold!” he yelled, and the other laughed. dream chuckled as well, and then glided off to the middle and then to the side of the bridge and climbed. “you’re such a show off. both of you are ridiculous.”

a couple of minutes later and the trio finally set foot into dragonspine. dream and george were completely dry whereas sapnap was dripping wet.

“sap you probably think you are so funny, but don’t get surprised when we’re fighting the monsters out here and you start to get frostbite,” george scoffed. “and dream, please don’t do anything stupid.”

“i don’t know if i can guarantee that, but i’ll try,” dream laughed. “anything for you, georgie.”

“ew.”

“am i seriously third wheeling now?” sapnap asked jokingly, earning more laughter from dream and a sneer from george. “hey wait, look at that!”

ahead on the pathway was a tree without leaves. it was surrounded by normal tree bark, but it seemed that it was carved out to fit the tree in the middle. its bark was colored silver with ruby tipped branches. in the middle of the tree was a ruby crystal. it stood out in the snow covered plains.

“oh, that’s the frostbearing tree,” george explained. “all over dragonspine are scattered crimson agates, and if you offer them to the tree you can recieve great fortune, like mora. there are few reports of it happening though.”

“in that case we should try to collect all the crimson agate we can get,” dream said. “we might get something cool, and the effort counts.”

“sounds good to me,” sapnap replied and continued to look around. “are there some hilichurls up there? i think they’re guarding a chest as well. lets go.”

the trio climbed up to the small ledge to the left of the frostbearing tree where two hilichurls and a cryo samachurl resided along with a cooking pot. dream set down his decoy to pull the three enemies in as sapnap set them ablaze. george used charged arrows to cause vaporize, but the hilichurls froze, which dream followed up on with sword attacks. the samachurl succumbed to the sapnap’s fire and claymore.

“too easy,” dream joked as he opened the treasure chest which had some weapon ores and mora which he put into the bag he was carrying.

“oh whatever,” george responded as he picked up the damaged masks and divining scrolls from the remains of the hilichurls and samachurl “let’s get going and find somewhere to setup camp. it’s getting cold.”

they continued to walk up the pathway up to some stairs surrounded by a stone arch. the stairs were covered with snow causing all of them almost slipping on it while going up. while going up, the air became even more cold and frigid. snowfall started to increase as well by the second.

“we have to find somewhere soon, the snowstorm is getting worse,” dream said, slightly shivering.

“agreed,” george replied. “should we just run down the path? i’m getting a bit desperate.”

“bet,” sapnap nodded and started to increase his walking pace. the other two followed suit.

as they ran, the snowstorm picked up. snow got caught in the trio’s hair and all over their clothing. the sky started to become darker as well just when the path split into two.

 _miscommunication is bound to happen_ , dream thought to himself.

“where should we go?!” sapnap yelled to george as he was in front of the left pathway.

“i don’t know! what’s up the left path?!” george shouted back.

“i think the statue of the seven is up there, but there are some weird metal defense machines defending it? i don’t know!” he answered, peering over the stone arch that led to the said statue of the seven.

“we can’t afford to fight those things right now!” dream called out as he looked out to the right side. “there's more pathway here, maybe we can camp at the end of it!”

“sapnap i think dream’s right, let’s go!” george yelled following dream, his words becoming lost in the frosty wind.

“what?!” sapnap shrieked, turning around to see his friends going down the right pathway. he then ran to meet with them.

but meeting the trio was a cryo fatui mage and her cryo cicins.

-

the mage ordered her cicins to charge cryo attacks at george, which he tried to dodge with his bow. he then started to shoot at the mage with hydro infused arrows, causing the mage to freeze and the cicins to momentarily stop attacking himself.

dream charged at the mage, pulling her in with his decoy, quickly charge attacking it so that his sword was infused with anemo. he slashed at the mage, swirling both cryo and hydro with the help of george.

after the anemo timed out on dream’s sword, the fatui mage unfroze and sent out a shockwave of cryo energy, knocking up dream as the ice slashed at him.

“what the hell was that?!” he yelled, backing away towards george.

the fatui mage then casted a cryo shield on herself. sapnap ran up to her and placed a spawn of fire, instantly breaking the shield. but then, her cicins started to attack him, in which he tried to block with his claymore while also attacking the mage, but then they eventually surrounded him and blasted cryo around him.

“yeah… this is not gonna work,” sapnap said, while sliding to the ground after being encircled by the cicins.

“watch out, this is gonna hurt!”

-

dream opened his eyes and saw a man with long pink hair with a matching long red coat wielding a claymore plunging into the ground. he stood up and slashed at the fatui mage and her cicins. he proceeded to slam the ground, sending out three charges of ice out in the style of fireworks.

twirling his sword, dream charged at the fatui mage along with the man in red. he swirled the other man’s cryo with his anemo vision’s wind. sapnap and george also attacked the mage with their pyro and hydro, taking out the cicins and eventually the mage. dropping from the fainted cicin mage were some mist grass pollen and mist grass and george went to pick them up, and then hesitated.

“um… are you sure you don’t need these?” he asked the man in red who was facing the end of the pathway.

“it’s fine,” he replied plainly and started to walk down the pathway.

“wait!” dream yelled without thinking. “can you help us find a place to stay?”

the man turned around. “why would you need my help?”

dream then realized what he did and panicked. “you seem like you know your way around here! this is our first time and dragonspine and it would really help if someone could show us somewhere we can camp.”

he stood and looked lost in his thoughts, as if someone was talking to him. “you three look interesting so alright, sure. come with me.”

-

the trio followed the mysterious man down the pathway, not exchanging any words. the snow started to calm down but the sky was still ever dark. they just admired the scenery without a single sound coming from any of the four, until the mysterious man finally spoke.

“what brings you to dragonspine? you all look like rookie adventurers,” he asked, awaiting a response as they continued to walk down the pathway. “it’s clear you aren’t necessarily prepared for the cold of dragonspine.”

“oh, it’s a long story,” george spoke up. “but basically me and sapnap heard about it and we headed to dragonspine, where we met dream who decided to tag along in our adventures.” he gestured accordingly to who he was talking about.

“i see,” the man muttered. “oh yeah, introductions. i’m techno.”

“you’re techno?” sapnap asked. “like as in, an heir to the blade potato farm?”

“the one and only,” techno replied, and quickly changed topics with the mention of the farm. “do you guys have wing gliders? it’ll make this easier.”

ahead was a broken bridge which headed to another part of the mountain. there was also a cave, which seemed to have a camp setup.

“we do,” dream answered, approaching the end of the bridge to glide off.

techno glided off and dream quickly followed. after, george and sapnap did the same. the four then walked to the little carving housing a camp.

“make yourself at home,” techno said, setting his claymore onto a shelf which had some books and research specimens on it. “it’ll be a few minutes until ranboo gets here.”

“if you don’t mind me asking, why are you here in dragonspine?” dream asked, setting his bag and sword unto a table in the camp.

“well, i guess you have heard about how i am supposedly really strong in combat?” he started earning a nod from all of them. “i train in dragonspine as the extreme climate can push me to my limits. i brought my apprentice with me this time around, and i think he would enjoy adventuring with you guys.”

“oh i see,” dream said. “are you sure he wouldn’t mind us staying with you two? we don’t want to make things bothersome for the both of you.”

“he’s pretty easygoing, so don’t worry about it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ty for reading the chapter!! ill be taking a small break from doing daily chapters because im a bit burnt out on writing a chapter everyday hehe
> 
> next chapter will be out a couple of days from now! :)


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> dream and techno search for ranboo.
> 
> \- the blade and his brothers arc

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> finally,,, enjoy!!

there were actually many things to worry about. an hour has passed and no one knows where ranboo is.

“he’s probably lost out in starglow cavern,” techno said while pacing around the cave. “did i forget to remind him to write where camp was in his memory book? no… i couldn’t have, right?”

when techno was worrying, george and dream were making a large serving of satisfying salad with their own groceries along with the potatoes from the many sacks of potatoes that were up in the camp. sapnap was polishing his claymore.

“he has memory issues?” dream asked while boiling some eggs for the salad.

“it’s something he told me about when i first started to train him,” techno responded. “it wasn’t a big concern at first but i don’t know if that’s something i can say now.”

“you must care about him alot,” george smiled while cutting the apples.

“yeah━” techno then cut his words. “i have to. he’s my apprentice, after all.”

-

“it’s still noon,” dream commented as the four men ate their satisfying salads. “we can go to starglow cavern and look for him, we have time.”

“i’m onboard with that,” techno said. “who specifically wants to go?”

“i think me and sapnap stay here just in case if ranboo remembers and comes back,” george mentioned.

“yeah, i think that’s a good idea as well,” sapnap agreed.

“so that means,” dream started. “me and techno will go out?”

“seems like,” the other nodded, taking another bite out of his salad. “let’s finish up and we’ll be on our way.”

-

  
dream and techno departed from the camp and started to take the pathway to the starglow cavern, which was on the opposite side of the mountain. the sky started to lighten up and the snowfall has stopped. their boots crunched on the snow on the pathway and they walked in silence.

“this is awkward,” techno said randomly and dream chuckled in response.

“it really is,” he agreed, looking up towards the sky and seeing celestia. “do you ever wonder how it might feel to ascend to celestia? or even just see what it’s like up there?”

“that doesn’t concern me to be honest,” techno replied. “and i have many things that concern me, to say the least.”

“like what? if you’re willing to say, of course,” dream asked.

“my father,” he started, stopping in his tracks, looking down on the ground. “this month he ordered me and my brothers to start preparing to fight to gain inheritance of the farm, be it in dueling or evaluating our knowledge in the family’s history. he’s still perfectly able to run it just fine, but this was so sudden, as if it was a decision he didn’t want to make.”

“do you have any idea what it can be leading back to?” dream asked, stopping to stand next to techno.

“i don’t know. the fatui, the abyss order, maybe even the knights,” techno said. “i tried to ask him but he avoided the queston. he’s hiding something from us, i’m sure of it.”

“any idea who it can involve?” he asked another question.

“maybe my brothers hired someone or some group to force him to do this,” techno rambled. “if they did and i find out before the end of the month… whatever respect i have for them still will wither with my wrath.”

  
-

dream and techno walked to the entrance of the starglow cavern in silence. it seemed that techno was lost in his thoughts and needed to reflect before going into the cavern, and dream respected that despite his curiosity.

the cliffside was filled with long blue crystals, poking out from the sides of the mountain. entering the cavern, it had the same long crystals poking out, illuminating the cavern and its entirety.  
“any idea where he can be?” dream asked, his voice echoing across the cavern.

“knowing ranboo, he’d want to be alone where he can think to himself and try his hardest to remember,” techno replied, looking around the cavern as well. “maybe the top or the bottom?”

“where should we head then?” the other started to walk to the right which lead to the bottom of the cavern.

“i’ll follow your lead,” techno said following dream. “i trust you, at least for now.”

“sounds good to me,” he smiled under his mask, leading techno down the cave.

and then, a large shard of turquoise crystal fell right in front of dream, causing him to shriek out of shock.

“oh my fucking god!” he yelled as techno was laughing in the background. “your laughing tells me you saw that coming and didn’t tell me.”

“i did and your reaction was priceless,” the other responded. “would 100% do that again.”

“whatever,” dream scoffed, walking past the crystal with techno following.

-

“i remember when we were eating back at the cave sapnap and george were talking about how cool you looked when you got your vision?” techno asked as there were a couple of hilichurls, a mitachurl, and a samachurl guarding a chest down the path.

“looking cool is a bit much,” dream said in response. “but i’m willing to go beat those guys up with you if you want.”

“i’d like to see how well you do with that sword of yours,” techno then rushed into the camp, pulling out his claymore and unleashing a flurry of ice shards towards the hilichurls.

“show off much?” dream asked jokingly, joining techno by setting down his decoy, pulling in the hilichurls and swirling the cryo that techno applied.

“i guess i am,” techno laughed. “but show me what you got green boy!”

“my pleasure!” dream yelled back.

the decoy pulled in the hilichurls and techno slammed the ground with his claymore again, releasing more cryo, which had no effect on the hilichurls with cryo shields. however, techno broke the shields with the heavy hits from his claymore, and then the decoy timed out as dream slashed at it and the winds intertwined with his sword.

he quickly slashed at the now unshielded hilichurls swirling the cryo and its frostbite to the other enemies. these hilichurls then succumbed, damaged masks and firm arrowheads remaining as a staple to their lives. dream picked these up as they would be needed to upgrade equipment later on.

meanwhile, techno was hitting at the cryo tower which eventually broke, causing the cryo samachurl to fall. however, it was still casting its spells and it encased techno in a cage made out of ice, which broke in an instant.

dream went at it with a spawn of the decoy, which tossed the samachurl around. techno then released all the energy built up in his vision, sending out a burst of cryo around him, which recast as a cryo shield surrounding him. their combined forces killed the samachurl and what was left was a cryo shielded mitachurl.

techno slashed at the shield, breaking some shards of it off, but the shield itself would take a longtime to break, time that they needed to use to descend the cavern and find ranboo.

“you distract it, i’ll attack it from behind,” dream panted, and techno nodded in response since the mitachurl was already focused on techno.

he ran behind the mitachurl, setting down the decoy and the winds pulled in and damaged the mitachurl and it didn’t realize this as it was trying to attack techno. dream swinged his sword at the mitachurl while techno still made an effort to break the shield.

eventually, the decoy then timed out again and techno managed to break the shield. techno sent out cryo shards as dream unleashed the anemo energy overwhelming his vision spawned another decoy which significantly damaged the mitachurl even more. with a slash from techno’s claymore, it died.

“you’re not that bad if i do say so myself,” techno commented, picking up the heavy horn and divining scrolls on the floor.

“i’m honored that you speak highly of me,” dream replied while opening the chest. mora, weapon enhancement ores, books, and a low quality polearm came out of it which he picked up.

“as you should,” techno smiled while looking at the masked other.

-

they descended down the cavern, meeting more long pieces of crystals and more enemies, which they quickly took care of. and finally, they reached the cavern’s floor. on the floor was an ore that looked like ruby.

“what’s that?” dream asked.

“that’s scarlet quartz,” techno replied. “when you mine it and pick it up, it warms you for a bit and when you hit something, it is infused with the quartz. you can break ancient rime and frost thorns with it.”

the two looked around the area. snow covered the floor and it reflected the crystals on the ceiling. next to them was a pond with shards of ice sitting in it with frozen cold water accompanying it.

“the cavern leads out over there,” dream pointed to the large opening ahead of them. “let’s go? at least try to go as far as we can.”

techno stood and thought and then spoke. “sure.”

they walked along and eventually exited out. the snowstorm was picking up again and the snow covered the landscape of the pathway. despite the whiteouts, they could still see and went along.

trekking along side by side, the path was clear with no enemies. it was a weird occurrence in comparison to the rest of dragonspine as picking a fight with some hilichurls could be done by turning around the corner. however, that wasn’t the case on this pathway.

at least, it was until they saw an abyss mage attacking someone.

techno widened his eyes when he saw who it was.

it was ranboo.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> still wont be doing daily updates, will probably be every other day for now on
> 
> i hope u look forward to the next chapter!


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> dream, techno, and ranboo go back to camp.
> 
> \- the blade and his brothers arc

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> woo i pumped this out, enjoy!

“...techno?!” ranboo shrieked while slashing his polearm at the abyss mage.

his trainer didn’t even glance at him and attacked the abyss mage. this specific one can control hydro, and so techno used his cryo to freeze it and damage its shield.

dream followed up intuitively by setting down his decoy which did some damage to the hydro abyss mage, but not as much as techno’s cryo and ranboo’s electro. however, what helps, helps.

ranboo slashed at the abyss mage with one strike of lightning and continued to damage at its shield with his polearm, and the shield eventually broke. techno slammed it with cryo and ranboo powered up electro vision, sending a strike of lightning around the mage. superconduct fizzed it with their combined forces.

the decoy swirled around both ranboo’s electro and techno’s cryo, keeping the superconduct effect on the mage. the three’s combined forces forced the mage to start recasting its shield, but it was quickly canceled when dream slashed his sword a final time. it dropped a few dead ley line branches which he picked up.

techno sighed as he put away his claymore, and then looked at ranboo. “i was worried. did you forget to write about where our camp is in your memory book?”

“i did, but i forgot how i even got into the cavern and how to get out, and then i teleported out here and i ran into this abyss mage and a few hilichurls,” ranboo replied in a frantic. “i’m sorry about that techno.”

“you’re forgiven,” he said blatantly. “just don’t do that ever again, please.”

“i won’t, i promise!” ranboo then smiled, changing to a more happy tone. “who’s this? i really like your fighting style by the way!”

“that’s dream, i met him earlier and his adventuring friends while going back to the camp,” techno explained as they started to walk down the path back to the cavern.

“it’s nice to meet you ranboo, and thank you,” dream greeted. “techno was telling us all about you back at the camp.”

“...that’s exaggerated,” techno said.

“were you really?” his apprentice asked. techno flushed and he gasped. “you were!”

“he was telling us about how much you’ve improved under his wing and how happy he is seeing you grow. i knew more about you before i’ve even met you, dare i say,” dream continued. “techno was also really concerned when he realized you were lost.”

ranboo chuckled. “i didn’t know techno would speak so sweetly of me.”

“dream’s exaggerating it, don’t believe him,” techno stated.

“your expression says otherwise!” ranboo teased.

they then continued to banter as they entered the cavern and up back to the camp.

-

“you found him?” george asked as the three entered the camp. he stood up and approached them, and they all towered over him. “oh my god, you guys are tall.”

“no, i just think you’re short,” dream joked, looking down on his friend.

“rude much?” george asked with an annoyed tone, then looking towards the new arrival. “you must be ranboo?”

“i am, you’re george? and over there must be sapnap, right?” he nodded and then asked.

“that’s right,” george confirmed and ranboo smiled. “we have some satisfying salad if you would like.”

“that sounds great, thank you!”

meanwhile, techno and dream set their weapons to the side and sat down to rest. the sun was setting and the sky was finally becoming darker permanently. the warm lighting of the fire made the camp feel alive and comfy.

ranboo was eating his salad and continued to conversate with george. sapnap chipped in too ever so often, whereas techno and dream sat in silence, taking in the atmosphere.

dream then broke the silence between them. “are you thinking right now?”

techno nodded.

“about your family?”

he nodded again.

“well,” dream continued. “you can’t just ask your brothers ‘do you have any connection on how dad is giving up the farm?’ that’s just ridiculous.”

“but i can ask if they think this is sudden,” techno added on. “but then again, that would be out of the blue. we’re not necessarily close.”

“why is that? i didn’t really catch-”

“it’s because we've had rivalries since we were young,” the other explained. “it was child’s play at first, but as wilbur and i entered adulthood, these rivalries developed into more serious manners, and as tommy grows he’ll eventually get involved. it’s caused me to distance myself from my sibling’s lives, when i…”

“you want to be in them?” dream asked.

“yes, i do.”

dream thought about his own family. they all had their own lives and had sibling rivalries when growing up, but they were all close to each other now. rivalries didn’t transfer over when adulthood approached, so dream thought to himself, what exactly keeps rivalries intact? was it childhood trauma? jealousy?

“if you don’t mind me asking, what are those serious manners?” dream inquired.

techno thought for a second, and then spoke. “it’s so blurry but… i found one of wilbur’s old journals, and he wrote that he thinks our father thinks that i’m the favorite. he wrote that he will do everything in his power to prove that he’s also worthy of praise.” he sighed and then continued. “i showed this to my father and he confronted wilbur about it, and wilbur has never looked at me the same. tommy found out what happened, and personally told me that he’s on wilbur’s side. i… still don’t know how to feel about it honestly. i was so proud of wilbur when he got promoted to become a captain, and to think he only did it because of me…”

“god damn,” dream said, pity filling every part of him. “that must suck.”

“oh, let me tell you, it does,” techno chuckled sadly. “this has been going on for years, and now that inheritance for the farm is up in the air… i’m even more worried i’ll hurt them even more i have our whole lives. i will never forgive myself in that case.”

silence filled between the two. they both focused on sapnap, george, and ranboo’s conversation. sound drowned out as their facial expressions expressed their spirits. they were all smiling, especially ranboo. it was happy, warm, like a family.

family.

“ranboo’s innocence makes me jealous,” techno said, his tone becoming ever so quieter. “you and your friends' optimism as well. it reminds me of when times were simpler.”

“what did you say?” dream asked. “i heard what you said about ranboo, but not after that.”

“hah, it doesn’t matter anyways.”

-

night has finally laid upon teyvat and everyone was working on cooking dinner together. ranboo was teaching george and sapnap how to make mondstadt hash browns, courtesy of techno’s teachings.

“so what you want to do is shape the mixture, but make sure it’s warm so you don’t burn your fingers,” ranboo explained while doing what he was saying. “like so.”

“FUCK!” sapnap yelled, dropping a handful of the seasoned potatoes.

george wheezed while looking at the cave floor splattered with cut up potatoes with seasoning. “you just wasted so much of the potatoes!”

“i didn’t think it was going to be hot,” sapnap pouted.

“we literally just cooked the damn thing over a pot, of course it’s going to be hot,” george argued.

“yeah, but i thought it was going to be cool by now,” sapnap reasoned.

“you’re just stupid then, it’s been, maybe a minute since we took it out,” george retorted.

“no, i’m just cooler than the potatoes and they fought me and lost,” sapnap retaliated.

dream cackled. “what is that supposed to mean?”

“you heard me, i’m just cooler than the potatoes and they heated up and made me squish them and drop them to the floor,” he explained again. “it was an act of self defense.”

“self defense is protecting yourself and avoiding attacks, not initiating them,” techno explained at the mention of it.

“you don’t have to be such a smart ass techno,” sapnap sighed in defeat.

“well i am and there’s nothing you can do about it,” he then said with pride. “blood for the blood god.”

“amen!” ranboo exclaimed, joking alone with techno.

they continued to joke around while cooking the hash browns. there were many pauses to just stop and laugh, but it was eventually done. ranboo plated everything and made it even more extra than it had to be with herbs and condiments used as decoration. however, everyone collectively agreed that it was very nice of him and pleasing to look at as well.

dream took a bite and nodded. “i’m surprised it’s edible.”

“dream, you literally ate chicken mushroom skewers made by sapnap and fisherman's toast made by me, our cooking is delicious and you know it,” george said to him in an annoyed tone.

“i never said it was good,” the other said plainly.

george rolled his eyes, “oh, whatever.”

“you guys are bickering like a newlywed couple,” sapnap laughed while chewing on his food. it was clear he didn’t think before he spoke.

george blushed. “why did i even talk to you sapnap? you’re both so annoying.”

dream just stood and ate in confusion, oblivious to what george and sapnap were referencing. but, in truth, he thought the hash browns were some of the best he had in a long time.

meanwhile, techno and ranboo were talking to each other in a corner of the camp privately.

“you told dream what was going on with your family?” ranboo asked, writing the details into his memory book.

“everything, for some reason,” techno explained. “he seems like a very genuine and positive person… but of course, i wonder what it took for him to get to such a high point.”

“didn’t he say he got his vision recently?” his apprentice questioned, flipping back to the last page, and back to the current page. “‘dream’s free spirited and wields an anemo vision. we trust him.’” he said out loud while writing.

“do you think maybe he could help us with finding more about why father is giving up the farm?” techno suggested after swallowing a bite of the hash brown.

“they’ve talked to tommy and tubbo,” ranboo recalled. “it would be rude to ask them to find out what’s going on when they just came up here to dragonspine, wouldn’t it?”

“you have a point,” techno said. “but would it hurt to ask?”

“probably, we literally met them today.”

silence filled between the two.

“the one moment i start to trust other people again ranboo, you just had to say that,”  
techno laughed.

“‘don’t trust anybody,’ they say,” ranboo quoted. “you out of all people should know that, right?”

“yeah but,” techno started. “that was family, there’s already trust and respect built. but, dream has already earned all of it.”

“well then,” ranboo smiled. “if you think you can trust him and his friends, and it wouldn’t hurt to ask, then i don’t see the problem with asking. i’m just… worried for you.”

“i think it’s going to be okay,” techno concluded. “i won’t be losing much if it goes wrong, right? we just met them today.”

“if you think it’s okay, i’ll trust you and go along with it techno,” ranboo reassured. “i’ll even tag along with them! that sounds fun! but i would be missing out on training up here in dragonspine.”

“now that you mention it, are you okay with going back down to mondstadt?” techno asked.

“the inheritance trials are in a month, and dragonspine will be here after that, so i don’t mind,” his apprentice said.

techno looked at him. “so, with that being said, it’s decided we’ll ask?”

ranboo looked back at his trainer, “it’s decided.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i have spent all my writing energy oh my god, i have no idea when the next chapter will be out now but i hope you enjoyed and look forward to the rest of the story!


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the dream team and techno and ranboo lay low and some decisions are made.
> 
> \- the blade and his brothers arc

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HI ITS BEEN A WEEK I AM SO SORRY BUT ENJOY!! :)

by the time techno and ranboo have made a decision, sapnap had departed to admire the scenery surrounding the camp and dream wanted another serving of the hash browns. george challenged his statement when he asked him.

“if you said ‘i never said it was never good,' why would you ask for another serving?!” george questioned. “dream, you make literally no sense.”

he laughed. “you shouldn’t always take me seriously.”

“i care about you too much not to.”

“you’re doing that on your own parole.”

the air thickened and everything paused for a split second. dream watched george’s facial expression change and realized how weird that must’ve sounded to him. he immediately tried to take what he said back.

“wait, george, i didn't mean that,” dream said softly.

“no, no, it’s fine,” the other smiled while setting the hash browns onto dream’s plate. “here. you should really just say if you like something more straightforward.”

“alright georgie,” dream joked, earning a scoff from george.

“hey, am i interrupting something?” techno asked, approaching the masked fellow.

“no, not really,” he took a bite of the hash brown, and quickly gulped after knowing what he wanted to say next. “what’s up?”

“could you uh,” techno started. “do me a favor? well, if i’m going to pay you it’s really not a favor, but…”

dream perked at the mention of a pay. “what is it?”

“remember my matters with my family?”

he nodded.

“well, you’re definitely someone i can trust, dream,” techno begined to explain. “you and your friends.”

dream nodded again. “we literally just met today, how come?”

“i literally told you something that would get all of mondstadt talking. isn’t that enough to make you believe i do trust you?”

“you have a point.”

“exactly,” the other confirmed, and continued. “so, what i want you to do is go back to mondstadt and try to ask my brothers what they think is going on. you’re already well acquainted with tommy, correct?”

dream nodded.

“so you have a good chance of getting something out of him, but i don’t know about wilbur,” techno said. “and might i mention, ranboo has decided he’ll go with you guys as well.”

“techno, you do realize that we just got here up to dragonspine today and we were planning to stay here for a couple of weeks, right?” dream asked.

“you will all be compensated a kind amount of potatoes yearly and a fine amount of mora,” techno replied. “and i promise that this experience will help you and your friends in the long run. also, in the future, you can ask me for any favor.”

“not to be an asshole, but how much mora?” dream questioned. “just so i know.”

“perhaps 500,000 for each of you, maybe more,” he answered. “and many bags of potatoes. too much, dare i say.”

dream thought. he took another bite of his hashbrown, chewed, and then swallowed.

“i’ll have to ask sapnap and george about it. i’ll let you know by then.”

“sounds good to me.”

-

sapnap came back from his walk out in the snow.

“this place is crazy!” he exclaimed, explaining what he found on his walk to his adventuring partners. “there was this big ruin grader down the path, and i tell you, it was itching for a fight.”

“wait, sapnap, remember that one time we almost got killed by a ruin guard in fontaine?” george laughed, washing the last dish with his vision. “wait, i don’t think i should be laughing about that.”

“i’m traumatized because of that,” sapnap shivered. “don’t remind me, george.”

“what even happened?” dream asked, putting down his book.

“we were assigned a commision that required us to kill a ruin guard in fontaine,” george started to explain, sitting down on the chair next to dream. “it was in the middle of a prairie, but what we didn’t know is that there was a ledge so high that it will kill someone. sapnap almost fell off the ledge, and the ruin guard had so many attacks that could cause us to be near it. not fun, at all.”

“well duh,” he replied. “i hope i don’t have to carry you guys if we ever fight a ruin hunter anytime soon.”

“we’re not stupid dream!” sapnap retaliated. “that was like, our second week of doing commissions together? if anything, we’ll be carrying you.”

“oh sure you will,” dream said sarcastically. “sure you will.”

“you’re such an idiot,” george said in a tired tone and sapnap hummed in agreement. “oh yeah, you were talking to techno earlier? what was that about?”

“oh yeah, about that,” the other recalled. “techno was talking about paying us to do him a favor. well, technically it isn’t a favor if we are being paid, but…”

“so, a job?” sapnap asked.

“basically.”

“what is it?” george questioned.

“i should start from the beginning.”

-

“to put it simply,” explained dream. “techno is the blade family’s token child, and wilbur was jealous of him. wilbur wrote in his journal about how jealous he was and he became the recreation captain of the knights of favonius to prove to their father he’s also worthy of praise.”

“so, he went through years of training just because of that?” george gasped. “about, half of his life?”

“i think you can say that,” sapnap muttered.

“and then techno found this journal right?” the other two nodded. “he gave it to their father, and now techno is shunned from both wilbur and tommy.”

“wait, how did tommy get involved?” sapnap chuckled.

“if i remember correctly, wilbur told him. he’s on wilbur’s side.”

“oh, i see,” george said, sinking into the chair.

“and now that their father is giving up the farm, techno is suspicious if it has something to do with his brothers. so, the task is that we have to find out what wilbur and tommy think is going on with that,” dream fully clarified. “ranboo also wants to join us if we take the offer.”

“how exactly are we supposed to do this? we’re going to approach both of them and ask about family problems. scary topic,” george shuddered.

“but who knows what could happen? we’re not part of the intelligence department of the guild, but we can try,” sapnap brought up.

“i also can’t wait to see tommy’s reaction to finding out i have a vision,” dream laughed, thinking about the child’s antics and the times they’ve spoken to each other.

“but we also just spent so much time getting prepared for dragonspine earlier today,” he mentioned. “i don’t know, doesn’t sound favorable.”

“please george?” sapnap implored with a baby-tone voice.

“that’s going to take more convincing.”

dream cackled. “this is so stupid.”

“c’mon! it’ll be fine! and fun! and we might get chased after, but we’ll run to liyue where the knights can’t get us!” sapnap beamed as he went behind their chairs and put his arms around george and dream.

george reddened with the sudden closeness. “ugh, fine. promise me that we will come back to dragonspine after doing the job though.”

“dragonspine will always be here waiting for us,” dream affirmed. “but techno needs us.”

-

it was almost midnight. george, sapnap, and ranboo were fast asleep. however, dream and techno were wide awake. the latter was sipping on coffee, its fragrance filling the camp.

“you’re drinking coffee in the middle of the night?” dream asked, setting his book down while laying down on the cushioning.

“can’t sleep, so i’m drinking coffee so i can stay deep in my thoughts,” techno said monotonically, looking out in the snow.

dream turned his positioning to look at techno. “i never thought of it that way.”

“have you and your dream team decided if you want to take the offer?” techno asked.

“dream team? i’ll have to talk to them about that name,” the other laughed quietly. “we’ve decided yes, also.”

“so, you guys will be moving back down to mondstadt,” techno evaluated their circumstances. “i’m sorry again for demanding something that’ll cause you to go back where you started. i really only trust ranboo and you three at the moment, so i have no one else to ask.”

“the others don’t mind, so i don’t mind either,” dream smiled faintly. “i’ll follow them wherever they go.”

“why is that?”

“they’re the reason why i’m here.”

and then dream fell asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this chapter isn't interesting, but it catches us up for the next part of this arc :) we'll see the clingy duo soon so stay tuned!!
> 
> also i tweet haha funny at realoqy


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